Why, we oughta … the Three Stooges are coming back for seconds. How they got there, we’ll never know. Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos and Will Sasso will reprise their roles as Larry, Moe and Curly in a sequel to The Three Stooges for C3 Entertainment, Grand Peaks Entertainment and The Exchange.
Cameron Fay has been hired to write the script. He scripted Brother-In-Laws starring Taran Killam, which is awaiting a release date from Paramount.
The first Three Stooges movie was directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly Brothers and was released in April 2012. On what was reported as a $30M production budget (not including distribution and advertising costs), the film took in $54.8M. It’s better than a double poke in the eye but still a pie in the face.
This time around, plans are to add a big action star to the cast to muscle things up. Whether they’ll “kill or cure” the box office remains to be seen as even the first time around Fox and the Farrellys were internationally challenged. Only 19% of the box office came from overseas.
However, according to C3, The Three Stooges took in another $22,731,973 in Blu-ray and DVD sales and $9,567,000 in digital revenue as of Oct. 2013.
The original slapstick trio of vaudeville who became legends in comedy and later changed it up a bit was composed of Moe Howard, his brother Curly Howard and Larry Fine. Their shtick, which relied on sight gags and physical comedy, lasted from the 1930s through the 1950s. Because the shorts they did for Columbia Pictures way back when are still in syndication, generation after generation of kids grew up on the Stooges. The team went through various incarnations and everyone “soitenly” has their favorite latter-day third Stooge — Shemp Howard or “Curly Joe” DeRita.
C3 and Grand Peaks will produce with The Exchange. C3, which owns the Three Stooges brand, also will run the sequel’s licensing, merchandising and promotional programs. Pablo Velez of C3 will produce along with Alan Simpson (The Last Five Years) of Grand Peaks and Nat McCormick of The Exchange. Simpson and McCormick will provide the feature’s development financing through their Exchange Peaks Capital fund. C3’s Earl Benjamin and Robert Benjamin will executive produce along with The Exchange CEO Brian O’Shea and Jeff Bowler.
Fay is repped by Paradigm, Kaplan/Perrone, and Lichter Grossman.
